Regular consumption of meals is one of the healthy eating habits. As recommended by the experts we should have 3 to 5 meals a day, of which the breakfast is a very important one.
The purpose of the research part of the thesis was to find out what kind of habits and attitudes schoolchildren have of breakfast, what is the role of parents, teachers and the peers, and which factors are the ones that stimulate and inhibit primary school children when eating breakfast. We used the qualitative research method. A semi-structured interview was carried out by using the designed template interview. Some individual interviews were recorded and then converted into written form.
The sample consists of children of three age groups: Group 1: 6 to 8 year-olds, Group 2: 9 to 11 year-olds, Group 3: 12 to 14 year-olds. Five children of each age group were interviewed. The survey showed that many students do not eat breakfast regularly. They are not aware of the importance of eating breakfast. They know that breakfast is an important meal of the day, yet their reasons for not having it are lack of time and the fact that they are not hungry in the morning. The students who regularly eat breakfast are either hungry in the morning, encouraged by their parents or have already formed the habit of eating in the morning. Children often say that their parents also do not have breakfast, which shows the importance of the parents' attitude to breakfasting. According to the survey results we suggest that children should be encouraged to eat breakfast in order to feel the benefits of regular breakfasts, while the parents should be involved, too.
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